Prior to the 1940's there were relatively few sheet metal connectors manufactured for joining wood in the construction industry. All such connectors known to Applicant utilized orthogonal nailing. As labor and lumber became more expensive the use of sheet metal connectors such as joist hangers, angles, anchors and bracing became more commonly accepted. In the past twenty years, several major companies have begun producing metal connectors in huge volumes and today, hardly a wood framed building is constructed without the extensive use of these lightweight connectors.
Most wood framing members intersect at right angles and all of the connectors designed for these connections use orthogonal nailing. There has always been a need for metal connectors for connecting wood framing members at angles but even though the metal connectors are easily formed to provide these connections, none have been satisfactory since no one has found a way to satisfactorily nail the metal connectors to the wood framing members. The problem is that there is no way to drive nails through the openings in some parts of the metal connectors because of the lack of space to swing a hammer. Some manufacturers custom manufacture a line of skewed hangers but these are unsatisfactory since they must be made with very wide flanges to permit some nailing of the hanger. Still, nail openings are provided in these hangers in places where it is impossible to drive a nail.
In some of the custom made skewed hangers, it is necessary to either pre-nail the supporting member or the supported member, even though for construction purposes the nailing sequence is contrary to the most convenient construction procedure.
A typical skewed angle connector of the prior art is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. The connector illustrated is a hanger having a seat 1, parallel sides 2 and 3, a short face member 4 and a long face member 5. The face member 4 is joined to side member 3 at an obtuse angle and the face member 5 is joined to side member 2 at an acute angle. Standard circular nail openings 6 are provided in the face members and side members which require orthogonal nailing.
As shown in FIG. 6 even though nail openings 6 are punched in side 2, it is impossible to actually nail side 2 since there is insufficient space to swing a hammer. Thus, only side 3 can be nailed with nails 7.
Another problem with the connector hanger shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 is the fact that face member 5 must be unusally long in order to be able to nail face member 5 to supporting member 8. Even though more metal is required to form the hanger, the connector is actually unusally weak since the nail openings 6 in face member 5 are a relatively long distance from the end 10 of supported load carrying member 9.